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Bear with me, I'm new to this and still have not received my DVD and owner's manual.

Is it possible to Mute an instrument in a style instead of clicking on the down arrow for the volume of that instrument? I'm not talking permanently, just 'on the fly'.

Thanks, Dave Horne


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Bar Settings (F5). Mute and unmute any instrument.

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Rachael, within a few minutes of posting I saw that right clicking brings up a menu that gives that option.

Thanks for the fast response! I just returned to delete my initial post.

Thanks! DH


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Don't delete the posts once you figure it out. Remember, your questions and answers help other folks who have a similar problem.


John

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Quote:

Is it possible to Mute an instrument in a style...just 'on the fly'.




Welcome, Dave.

A quick way to mute one instrument temporarily is to right-click on its name in the row under the menu bar. That opens a little menu where you can select Mute and Solo (plus some fancier maneuvers that will be good to know about as you get fancier).

But maybe that's the method you hit on.


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Quote:

Don't delete the posts once you figure it out. Remember, your questions and answers help other folks who have a similar problem.




+1

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There are also keyboard shortcuts for Muting any of the tracks on the fly, handy when practicing, etc.

From te BB Help File:

Quote:


Muting Instruments

To mute (turn off) and unmute instrument parts:

Click on the desired part with the RIGHT mouse button to mute or unmute it. When the part is muted, the instrument name turns to red.

You can also use keystrokes to mute/unmute the instruments as follows.

ALT+2 Mutes All Instruments

ALT+3 Mutes the Bass

ALT+4 Mutes the Piano

ALT+5 Mutes the Drums

ALT+6 Mutes the Guitar

ALT+7 Mutes the Soloist

ALT+8 Mutes the Strings

ALT+9 Mutes the Melody

ALT+0 Mutes the Thru

Solo an Instrument Part
While listening to Band-in-a-Box, you can easily solo (isolate) a certain part by holding the Ctrl key and mouse clicking (left or right) on the instrument at the top of the screen. For example, if you want to hear only the Piano part, Ctrl+click on the Piano part. Ctrl+click again to hear all instruments play.

If you want to use hot keys for this, you can press Alt+2 (Mute-All) and then Alt+4 (Unmute Piano).






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Quote:


Muting Instruments

To mute (turn off) and unmute instrument parts:

Click on the desired part with the RIGHT mouse button to mute or unmute it. When the part is muted, the instrument name turns to red.

You can also use keystrokes to mute/unmute the instruments as follows.

ALT+2 Mutes All Instruments

ALT+3 Mutes the Bass

ALT+4 Mutes the Piano

ALT+5 Mutes the Drums

ALT+6 Mutes the Guitar

ALT+7 Mutes the Soloist

ALT+8 Mutes the Strings

ALT+9 Mutes the Melody

ALT+0 Mutes the Thru

Solo an Instrument Part
While listening to Band-in-a-Box, you can easily solo (isolate) a certain part by holding the Ctrl key and mouse clicking (left or right) on the instrument at the top of the screen. For example, if you want to hear only the Piano part, Ctrl+click on the Piano part. Ctrl+click again to hear all instruments play.

If you want to use hot keys for this, you can press Alt+2 (Mute-All) and then Alt+4 (Unmute Piano)


--Mac




Very swinging to post that, Mac. Thank you. I got out of the habit of using those and sort of forgot they existed.


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I tried the keyboard shortcuts and noticed that a few of them don't follow the listing of the instruments from left to right. It would be great if ALT+2, ALT+3 followed the list on the screen from left to right. I hope what I'm writing is clear.


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Oh, what you are writing is VERY clear to this user.

Having made the same assumption many times over...

Whyizzit?

I dunno either.

But Alt-6, 7 & 8 always "get" me, too.


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They are not in order of importance or piano would be first! LOL


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Stuff like that is usually created by somebody who thinks.

Since BIAB 2009 was the first version I got to know, I am not in the swing of things. Maybe there have been fewer options in early versions and some have been added later.

Now I come to the somebody-who-thinks' reasoning:
"Everybody knows the assigned key combinations. At least I do. I don't want to relearn them. They have become a habit. (Side note: Nobody controls his/her habits. Habits are in control.) So I just add the new features in the order that they appear in my mind and I reorder the items on the screen so they make sense. I don't care that the order of key-shortcuts doesn't make sense anymore."

Often it is that way when software architects are also the softwares power users.

Have a super Sunday.
Guido Haas

Edit: changed don't to doesn't in "the order of key-shortcuts doesn't"

Last edited by GHinCH; 12/19/10 04:27 AM.

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